A prodigal son returns

Hugh Blane of Claris Consulting is president of Legatus’ Seattle Chapter. He is a successful business consultant who, with wife Alyson, is a longtime resident of the Seattle suburb of Normandy Park. He is author of 7 Principles of Transformational Leadership: Create a Mindset of Passion, Innovation and Growth, and has produced 425 videos and articles on leadership.

He is also a “revert” to the Catholic faith who has shared the impressive story of his conversion with multiple Legatus chapters.

Hugh was born in Scotland. Seeking economic opportunity, his family emigrated to the United States when he was a boy. They settled in what he describes as the “Bull Connor” South in Birmingham, Alabama in 1969. He was enrolled in Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic School, and vividly recalls beginning class at age nine, when Alabama’s schools were integrated.

He recalled, “There I was in the Deep South, watching a car pull up and four African-American girls get out.”

The memory would shape his personal and professional life, he explained, as both he and the girls were outsiders entering an unfamiliar environment. “It made me passionate about making people feel welcomed, and showing them how they can fit in,” he observed. “When someone is coming into a new culture, an effective leader needs to make that person feel like a full participant.”

A LAPSED UPBRINGING

Hugh’s father found work as a head of maintenance at a department store chain. But despite attending a Catholic school and welcoming priests into their home, the family was not observant. “I never talked about the Faith or Jesus with my parents,” he explained. “My idea of religion was one of rules and expectations, and a God who wags His finger at you when you do not measure up. It did not lead me to a personal relationship with Jesus.”

By age 23, Hugh began dating a woman who was going through a divorce — a decision that went contrary to the advice of his local priest. He opted to leave the Church and make business success his focus. “I put money on the altar,” Hugh said.

Yet despite his secular worldview, in an effort to bring happiness into his life he began dabbling in Eastern mysticism, including Hinduism and Buddhism. He also chose to leave Birmingham for Seattle, a part of the country which he thought more promising for business success.

A CROSSROADS MOMENT

Decades later, however, he found himself facing “insurmountable financial pressures” at work. In conversations with his wife, he related, she told him, “You’re miserable. What are you going to do about it?”

One morning, he found himself sitting at home “dreading” going into work. He was channel surfing the television as he drank his coffee. He came across Protestant evangelist Joyce Meyer, whose message was “if you’re at the end of your rope and don’t know where to turn, turn to God. Say, ‘I need help. Please help me,’” he recalled.

“So, although it was out of character for me, I slid off the couch and did as she suggested.”

At the time “it didn’t do a darn bit of good,” Hugh thought. Then 45 days later a business associate invited him to his Presbyterian church. He went, and it began an introspective process in which he asked himself: why did I stop going to church?

“I’m a consultant, and consultants look for patterns,” he said. “I determined that my pattern in life wasn’t successful.”

Hugh spent the next seven years as a Presbyterian. One of the early influences of his return to church, he said, was to change the focus of his worship. Although he was not ready to put Jesus on his altar of worship rather than money, he did make a shift to replace money with value. He reflected, “Before I looked at my clients as an ATM; if I did something for them, they’d give money to me. Now my focus shifted to value, which was an improvement. It put the client first rather than me. And I discovered that when I add value to a client’s business, the money follows.”

It was a philosophy he’d take into his new business, Claris Consulting.

COMING ‘HOME’

In 2012, he moved to Normandy Park, and the Presbyterian church near his home was not to his liking. He opted to go to the other church in the area, a Catholic parish. He started attending Mass for the first time in 30 years.

“Going in and genuflecting, kneeling down, and watching the Mass brought back many memories,” he said. “I had an emotional experience at Communion time, hearing a voice say, ‘You are home.’”

Over the past decade he has gone “headlong” into a study of Catholic teaching. One of his favorite discoveries was the Forty Weeks program in Ignatian spirituality taught by Jesuit Father William Watson. Hugh went through it twice, then volunteered to lead the program at his parish.

Robert Edgmon, Hugh’s best man at his wedding, first introduced Hugh to Father Watson and Ignatian spirituality. In years past, the pair ran with the bulls together in Pamplona, Spain, and participated in Ironman competitions, but Hugh initially had no interest in Catholic spirituality, Robert recalled.

“I never would have expected Hugh to convert to Catholicism, and I don’t think Hugh would have expected it either,” said Robert, a Catholic convert from Evangelical Christianity. “But he’d ask me questions about why I believe what I do, and we’d get into discussions.”

Hugh’s questions persisted, he said, because “When Hugh gets interested in something, he’s like a bulldog that won’t let go.”

While it was Robert who introduced Hugh to Father’s Watson’s book, it was Hugh who suggested the pair go through the program together. Robert said, “It was really hard, but it resulted in a huge growth for the both of us.”

Robert reflected that while he had initially been Hugh’s spiritual mentor early on because of his background going to church, from that point “it quickly became a peer relationship.”

Robert continued, “If Hugh hadn’t insisted we go through the Forty Weeks program together, I wouldn’t have done it.”

Today, Robert plans to enter permanent diaconate formation for the Archdiocese of Seattle: “It never would have crossed my mind if I hadn’t done the Forty Weeks program,” he said.

THE ‘TROJAN HORSE’

Since his conversion, Hugh has been an active Catholic volunteer, including with Legatus. Mike McCartney is a member of Legatus’ Genesis Chapter and met Hugh at a coaching workshop. In their conversations, Mike discovered both shared a love for the Catholic faith.

Mike continued, “Hugh brings a bold fervor to the Church along with an appetite to learn more about his Catholic faith … he has a true desire to serve people and help them to know God.”

Citing Proverbs 27:17 (“Iron is sharpened by iron; one person sharpens another”), Mike believes their friendship has been of mutual benefit spiritually, and added, “I know he’s having a big influence on his Legatus chapter.”

Hugh concluded by noting that his conversion has had a big influence on his approach to business. He explained, “I see myself as a Trojan horse. Most of my clients are secular, and my objective is for them to meet Christ through me. In everything I do, I try to have the face of Christ show up.”

JIM GRAVES is a Legatus magazine contributing writer. 


Tips for transformational faith

Here are a few of the points Hugh Blane is likely to make while speaking to Catholic groups and organizations about living the Catholic faith:

• The Catechism calls us to holiness, but seeking holiness often demands that we leave our comfort zones.
• What we are in love with affects everything about us. The abundant love of Christ, if we accept it and receive it, takes away our fears.
• Memories can be powerful, for better or worse, and sometimes must be reset. We can do that through gratitude. We ought to consider three things we are grateful for from the past 24 hours, and then recall three memories from that same time span while inviting God to be present to us, making us whole through His mercy.
• If we love the Catholic faith, we must share it with others. We should pray that the Holy Spirit will use us and draw us closer to God, for the closer we get to God, the closer we can get to others.